Customer Reviews

Reader Rabbit 1st Grade [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

It's tough finding something for kids to play while not spending a fortune and wasting brain space on senseless games. The Reader Rabbit series are great because they offer great ways to learn while keeping things simple and fun in a cartoon-like format. The software is easy to install and I found that my 1st grader could easily navigate the program without getting stuck. She sat on it for hours!! I was surprised to see the fun she had with the program and look forward to purchasing further copies.

I bought this for my 6 yr. old grandson who just completed kindergarten. However, his favorite activity in kindergarten was computer lab so I decided to give him the opportunity to use a computer at home. I purchased Reader Rabbit 1st Grade. My opinion about the program is mixed.

It's worst problem is that it is very difficult to navigate. There is no documentation supplied with the program and there is no top menu provided. It is difficult to control. I am considered a computer whiz with almost 50 yrs. experience and one of my degrees is a Masters in Computer Science. Still I had numerous problems navigating. Fortunately, my grandson who seems to have an instinct for computers and who is very persistent found out how to maneuver. He is great on trial and error.

The program is not a teaching device. It doesn't teach anything. The student must already know how to do the work before using the program but it is a great refresher program. My grandson fell in love with the program. He worked five hours straight until he completed the program and then he wanted to do it all over again. The problem was that the program would not let him start all over again. Because the program has a memory for the work that the student has completed, when the student completes the program, all the student can do is to see the ending show. I spent almost an hour working around it. Uninstalling and reinstalling the program did not work. I finally had to create a new user account for my grandson so that he could play.

Although my grandson just completed kindergarten he is actually ready for the Second grade so he had no problems doing the work in the program. The program itself is not all encompassing of what pupils may learn in the First Grade. What a pupil will learn in the First Grade depends on the school. Reader Rabbit went about half way. The math is not as advanced as the local First Grade would have it and digraphs are not as extensively used in Reader Rabbit as some children will find in school

One other annoyance is that when the program installs it does not copy the files from the CD to the hard drive so that each time it is used, the CD must be inserted into the CD-ROM drive, making it harder for a child to start the program.

Also, some of the segments are so long they become boring in repetition. And there is way too much story telling which keeps the user from getting to the meat quickly.

As children's software goes the Reader Rabbit series is one of my favorites. Reader Rabbit's 1st Grade "Capers on Cloud Nine" captured my daughter's attention so well that she would not stop until she had finished the entire game! That says a lot since she hasn't previously been terribly interested in the computer as her older siblings have. The only reason I gave this four stars instead of five is because she was able to complete it in one afternoon. How I wish it could have gone on a little bit longer! Now the hunt is on for more...but what a great start. Still, it was definately worth the money and I would do it again as it sparked the fire!

My kids and I have been working through the whole Reader Rabbit 2002 series. In this installment, Reader and Sam investigate why boots and umbrellas are falling for the sky. The Cloud Queen sets them on tasks of discovery. You have to gather several items, as well as many singing marbles. Some monetary skills are taught in the sandwich shop, when your child will have to figure out how many pennies, nickles, dimes, and quarters to buy certain things. There are some vocabulary building exercises, and some math.
The Cloud Queen Song is very enjoyable, and the game comes with a bonus CD that has some projects, practice games, and songs from the other members of the series.
My kids ( 4 and 5 ) it, although they are younger than the intended audience.

The system requirements are wrong in that respect too....this program does not run natively in Linux.

For Mac or Win 98 on, it is a good program....

I was afraid this was a limited version software for the price- but it wasn't. It was better than I expected, and my first grader loves it.

My six year old spent several hours playing this the first couple of weeks. I'd like to add that the game is fairly complex and he needed help. The thing I liked was he was learning while having fun!

My daughter's kindergarten class had a chance to bring this game home and try it out. We had the option of purchase then if we wanted to keep it. The idea was to keep them learning over the summer coming up. I decided to buy it from Amazon instead, but just the same my daughter loves it. There are games she has not yet mastered and that keeps her interested. She also likes to play the adventure again and again, as well as simply doing the different activities.
I also like the fact that the game detects your child's skill level and only increases in difficulty when your child gets the hang of it. My only disappointment is one activity that even I had trouble with. Though it could just be our mouse is not sensitive enough. Nothing major though!
Great game!

i order this for my grandchild she loves it she was playing the game for over 2 hours and didn't want to stop thanks rita

My children, ages 3 and 6, like this game but there are only a few games to play. My 3 year old seemed to enjoy it more than my older child. Unless there are other games that have to be unlocked, I dont think this was worth the buy. Much more enjoyable for younger computer savvy kids.